Monday, September 24, 2012

The View from here

It's been a few weeks since Pioneer has had the chance to check in with the neighbourhood, so this past weekend was all about reconnecting with the Danforth and enjoying staying in the 'hood. With a long list of errands to run, we left the house on a perfect day for a neighbourhood walk.

On the way to Silly Goose Kids, to pick up some gifts and enjoy the store's first anniversary celebrations, we ran into our veteran city councillor Janet Davis who was biking home from the Kimbourne yard sale with a frozen pie in her basket. We got to talking about her tenure as the mother-hen of Ward 31 (she's been one of our city councillors for almost a decade) and how protective one can start to feel after so many years on council. Part of her ward is the Dawes Road/Danforth Village neighbourhood just bordering Danforth East. A recent article in the Toronto Star pinpointed the Dawes Rd area as home to a large and notorious gang (that shall remain nameless), which Davis was justifiably miffed over.

"That neighbourhood is rapidly changing. Property values are going up, crime is going down - it's a community of hard working people. Nobody is going to be happy that the police are still pointing to this area as a hotbed for gang activity, because it's just not true," David extrapolated, before riding off into the gorgeous fall afternoon to get her pie home to the freezer.

Moments later, a trail of beautiful 4-year old ballerina's dressed in baby blue spilled out of the doors of Pegasus studio on Glebeholme, a stunning counterpoint to the images in Pioneer's mind only seconds before. The beautiful innocence of Saturday afternoon ballet class.

Heading on to Silly Goose Kids, we found the store was happily jammed with friends and neighbours, kids and parents. The dark shadow of our conversation with Davis disappeared as we wrangled the crowds, chatted with DECA and lined up with Junior Pioneer for a free balloon.

And as it so often happens in this neighbourhood, the magic of a fall afternoon in a great city brushed aside our list of errands which was all but forgotten. It was time for one last ice cream at Carter's, before they close for the winter, and a stroll along the Danforth in the sunshine with two budding Pioneers in tow. With moments like this, why would we want to live anywhere else but here?